Mini left standing in survey of car buyers

THE INDEPENDENT

BRITISH motorists love affair with the Mini appears to be finally cooling after 35 years, a survey revealed yesterday. For the Rover Group's old favourite, introduced in 1959, came bottom but one in a 56- model survey of customer satisfaction.

The survey was conducted by the US consumer research firm J D Power for the BBC's Top Gear television series. From 58,000 respondents, a sample of 10,000 J-registration car owners were selected to offer information on their satisfaction with 27 makes and 56 models.

Top of the list was the Toyota Corolla, followed by the Mazda 323, Toyota Carina and two Hondas - the Accord and the Civic. Then came the Mazda 626, the Toyota MR2, the Mercedes 190, Daihatsu (all models were considered together for the survey) and the Proton.

The best-liked British car was the Rover 200 series in 13th place, with the Metro, Maestro and Rover 400 series also faring well. The Skoda Favorit - butt of so many jokes - achieved the same score as the Rover 200. In last place was the British-built four-wheel drive Vauxhall Frontera, with the Mini bottom but one. Four Fords and three Vauxhalls featured in the bottom 10.

The survey found that just over half of British motorists were very satisfied with their cars and dealers, compared with 75 per cent of Americans in a recent survey.